Chocolate Milk Contains More Salt Than Seawater, Study Suggests

Salt is one of those things that people cannot live without. Not only it adds taste to the food but the sodium ions liberated from it play important roles in nerve signaling and various other metabolic pathways as well. Having said that, one should also be aware of the fact that too much intake of salt can cause multiple organ failure and eventually death. This is the reason why drinking seawater is considered the same as committing suicide.

However, recent research findings indicate that commercially available foods and beverages contain as much or sometimes more amount of salt than an equal quantity of seawater does. While it is obvious to think that savory food items like crisps, frozen pizza, sauces and others are loaded with hidden salt, the recent findings indicate otherwise.

According to BBC News, the Galaxy Ultimate Marshmallow Hot Chocolate powder, which is essentially a sweetened beverage product, contains 2.5g of salt per 100g, which means 0.6g of salt per 25g serving. The values are way more than the specified salt target of 0.15g per 100g set for processed food items. Other food items that are known to be loaded with hidden salt are bread, cereal, stock cubes, cheddar cheese and tinned soup. The hidden salt present in such food items that are considered relatively healthy and are fed to babies is a major threat to the state of well-being of not only adults but also children.

The excess salt can cause hypertension that can then lead to a plethora of other chronic diseases including arterial congestion, cardiac distress, strokes, kidney ailments, dementia and other brain disorders. World Salt Awareness Week 2017, which is being observed from March 20 to March 26, is meant to raise awareness regarding the health risks associated with hidden salt, Belfast Live reported.

The British National Health Service (NHS) has issued guidelines regarding the amount of salt that needs to be taken by adults and youngsters. While the guidelines recommend 6g of salt for adults and children above the age of 11, considering the amount of processed food items regularly consumed by people, it is estimated that the total intake of salt on a daily basis is most likely to exceed the recommended levels.